Rocky Singh and his friend Mayur Sharma have spent much of the last seven years on a culinary road trip across India, stopping at wayside eateries in search of the best local dishes.

Mr. Singh, a pony-tailed, bespectacled hardcore carnivore, and Mr. Sharma, a tall and broad-shouldered devout vegetarian have sampled more than 7,000 different recipes at more than 1,000 roadside restaurants, called dhabas, across the country.

Until November last year, the men hosted a food and travel show on India’s NDTV called “Highway on my Plate.”

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Last week they released a new book called “Highway on My Plate-II: The Indian Guide to Roadside Eating,” which documents their dhaba-hopping journey of almost 75,000 miles.

The book — a follow-on to the pair’s 2011 “Highway on My Plate” — is divided by state, with a map showing the rough location of the dhabas and a brief note about the state, its food culture and signature dishes.

The book cover.

Courtesy of Random House India

On a recent afternoon, the dhaba veterans sat with cups of raspberry-flavored tea and shared some tips on how to spot a promising dhaba.

Clean is Relative. Hygiene is the first thing most people look for when they contemplate stopping at a roadside eatery, but the standards vary depending on where you are in India, Mr. Singh said.

“Down south,” said Mr. Singh, “the places are a lot cleaner. In the north, they get dirtier and as your move towards the northeast, it gets worse.”

If you are driving through Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, it might be best to pack some sandwiches, since some eateries are “spectacularly unhygienic,” Mr. Singh said.

Follow the Crowd. The most obvious sign of a good dhaba is often the number vehicles parked outside, Mr. Singh said. Look for a mix of both trucks and cars. Truck drivers know the best food, and the presence of civilian travelers means that the place probably has a good reputation.

Beware of the Dhaba-Restaurant Hybrid. When a dhaba loses its jute cots (manjis in Punjabi and chaarpais in Hindi) and clay tandoor ovens, “it’s safe to assume it’s losing the plot,” Mr. Singh said.

“The moment you see five plastic chairs around a colored table with a plastic cloth, you’d know they’re confusing themselves and their customers,” said Mr. Singh.

A dhaba should “maintain the character that defines it,” he said. An authentic dhaba will also have a small bathing area for truckers to clean up and at some places the additional service of an in-house laundry man (or dhobi).

Mr. Sharma said that the cluster of decades-old dhabas in Murthal, located about 27 miles north of Delhi and famous for their stuffed paranthas (fried or grilled flatbreads), have fallen victim to the restaurant creep.

Sometimes the food survives the dhaba-to-restaurant transition. Gulshan Dhaba in Murthal is one such example with a four-star rating in the book.

While the owners have made the place look “swankier,” the review said, the paranthas are “grilled to perfection in the tandoor” and served with dollops of fresh white butter.

Spot the Friendly Host. A large number of dhabas in India are family-run and passed down from generation to generation. Being able to spot the owner is a good sign that the place is authentic, said Mr. Singh.

The owner need not be cooking the food, “but he needs to be around,” Mr. Sharma said.

The worst is when nobody really knows who the owner is and more than half of the serving staff claims to be a manager, said Mr. Sharma.
“And the best is when the owner tells you about what’s going on in the kitchen with the correct assumption that you know nothing about it,” said Mr. Singh.

The duo remembers a man named Bharat (they don’t, however, recall his last name), as one of the more exceptional hosts they met during their travels. Bharat is the third-generation owner of Hotel Amrut, in Karwar district in northern Karnataka near the border with Goa.

At Hotel Amrut, Mr. Singh ordered the “Bangda Kitkat,” a freshwater fish. Bharat explained that the fish is always fresh because sandbars in the area slow the flow of the water, insuring a steady supply. Hotel Amrut has four stars to its credit and a meal costs between $5 and $6 a person.

The Veggie Trail. If you are looking for vegetarian heaven, head to Gujarat, said Mr. Sharma. Anand, the so-called milk capital of the state, has dhabas serving distinctive Kathiawadi food, from the Kathiawar peninsula on the Arabian Sea coast. “Some of these places have an open kitchen with firewood cooking and the food in this region is very different from the standard Gujarati food, which is distinctively sweet,” said Mr. Sharma.

Carnivore Delights. For meat, head south to Kerala, said Mr. Singh. The state is “a food powerhouse” and a “Pandora’s box of evil food.” Mother’s Kitchen is his favorite. The dhaba is on National Highway 47 in Karunagapalli, approximately two hours from Kerala’s capital, Thiruvananthapuram.

“The Meena Polichatu, prepared by slathering fish in a thick paste of spices and steam cooking it in fresh banana leaves, is so tender that the meat almost falls off before you touch it,” said the review, which gave Mother’s Kitchen a five-star rating. (There are four more featured eateries in the book’s Kerala section with five stars to their credit.)

Worst Food Destination. Chhattisgarh. There are few places to stop in the jungle state, the men said. The state is missing variety in its local food eateries. It’s challenging, said Mr. Singh, because it’s a dense forest region and there aren’t very many organized pit stops.

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